Method and apparatus for perforating jacquard card sketch paper



Oct. 17, 1950 v R. RUDDELL. 2,526,280 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING JACQUARD cm: SKETCH PAPER 4 SheetsSheet 1 v 'F1L ed July 25, 1947 Q rwwwtom /Q/OHARD Q4/0054 Oct. 17, 1950 R. RUDDELL 2,526,280

- METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING JACQUARD CARD SKETCH PAPER 1 Filed July 25, 1947 .4 Sheets-Sheet 2 3mm lQ/CHA RD PUQQELL Oct. 17, 1950 R. RUDDELL m'ruon AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING JACQUARD CARD SKETCH PAPER 4 sneeis-sne'et 3 Filed July 25, 1947 gym a Oct. 17, 1950 2,526,280

R. RUDDELL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING JACQUARD CARD SKETCH PAPER 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July 25, 1947 000 000 oo 00 000 000 o 000 000 o 000 000 00 o co 0 oo oo o oo 3 vw wwbom RICHARD PUDDELL Patented ct. i7,

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE METHOD AND AlPARATUS FOR Pea-roam ING JACQUARD CARD SKETCH PAPER Richard Ruddell, Manchester, Conn. Application ll'uly 2%, 1947, Serial No. i 63,463

7 Claims.

The present invention relates broadly to the weaving of textilefabrics, andmore particularly to a'inethod and apparatus rc'r perforating 'sket'c'h paper or othersheet material in accordance with or corresponding to 'a design to be reproduced in a woven textile fabric. The perforations formed in the sketch paper are arranged so that the sketch paper may then be 'used' to perforate Jacc uard cards, for example, in accordance with the method and by use 'of the apparatus dis- Closed in my prior Patent No. 1,913,514 issued June 13, 1933, which cards ma then be used in a Jacquard mechanism for controlling a loom to reproduce the original design referred to.

In the weaving of textile fabrics to provide a design therein, a conventional method of weaving employs a so-called Jacquard mechanism which is controlled bfy'a'series of perforated cards called Jacquard cards for determining the weave of the cloth bein'gproduced. The Jacquard cards through the presence or absence of perforations control -the sheddingv of the warp threads during each pick, thus making it possible to reproduce even very intricated'esi'gn's. "The type of weave not only determines the cloth structure but, Where weft threadsof different colors are used, may be used to determine the color of that area. This operation is well known in the art and is merely mentioned here by way of background.

The Jacquard cards" may be perforated mechanically and substantially automatically by the use of the method and apparatus set forth in my prior patent referred to above once there is provided a perforated or punched sketch paper for controlling the operation of the punches. In ac;- cordance with my prior invention, the control of the apparatus for perfo'rating the Jacquard cards is provided by a sketch paper which has been perforated in the various areas of the design with spaced perforations having a relationship to the type of weave desired in the respective areas. v u w The perforating of the sketchlpaper for controlling the apparatus of my prior patent has beenheretofore. a highly specialized operation and has been carried out substantially through out in a hand operation. This hasnot only made the process a slow and tedious one and increased its costs, but also, because it is entirely a manual operation, frequently results in costly errors.

A principal object of the present invention is to avoid the great amount of time and degree bf skill of the operator which has been required heretofore, and hence reduce the'cos't of pre= paring the sketch paper for use in perforating Jacquard cards as practiced in accordance with my prior invention.

Another object of the invention is to provide a highly mechanized and automatic means for preparing the sketch paper which will avoid many of the errors commonly occurring in the hand operations previouslyutiliaed. In this connection, it is an aim of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for perforating the sketch paper whichwill have the additional advantage of providing a simple and convenient check of the .final Jacquard cards prepared so that any errors maybe immediately detected and corrected by the o'pe'ratbr'without the need for running the Jacquard cards in a weaving operation to ascertain whether or not the design has been faithfully reproduced. I

Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for perforating sketch paper which is inherently versatile so that the method and apparatus may be utilized or modifled to. fit any of the varying requirements encountered in the art, such as designs ranging from very small to very large repeats and also the weaving of fabrics with large variations in the number of needles of the Jacquard mechanism used with the weaving apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of simple design which may be 0perated 'in accordance with the described method without any lengthy instructions or training for the operators, and an apparatus which will not readily get out of order and willbe fool proof in operation under all ordinary conditions of operation. It is also an aim to provide these advantages in an apparatus which is easily and inexpensively fabricated and assembled.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplifled in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be in-' dicated in the appended claims.

In thedrawings- V Figure l is a side view of a specific embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation with the jacquard head omitted;

v Fig. 3 is an enlarged partial side view showing the drive mechanism utilized in the specific embodiment; I

Fig. 4 is a partial top view;

Fig. 5 is a partial plan view of the perforated sketch paper placed on a screen; and

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view of a stencil sketch paper and screen illustrating the action of the perforating needles utilized in the apparatus of my invention.

In practicing the method of my invention, an enlarged sketch is first made of the design or fabric to be duplicated. The degree of enlargement is arbitrarily selected to provide a sufficient magnification so as to minimize errors and is also determined to a large extent by the character of the enlarging apparatus which is available. For example, it has been found to be desired in actual practice to mark off the design in approximately 1 inch squares and then to enlarge the design with an enlarging camera so as to provide a magnification of eight times,

that is, so that a 1 inch square of the original design can be reflected upon stencil paper which is ruled to provide squares of 12 x 12 inches. With the camera enlargement properly focused, i. e., with the squares aligned, the operator may then outline the design on the stencil paper with a pencil and, due to the prominence of detail, it is relatively easy to produce a satisfactory drawing. Enough of the design is copied to cover a complete repeat in the design.

The sketch maker then takes the stencil paper sketch and completes the sketch guided by his rough outline to perfect the various shapes. Following this, each distinctive area of the stencil paper is out along its periphery with a sharp instrument such as a sharp bladed knife or any of the mechanical stencil cutters available commercially. The areas which are cut out are retained so that they may be selectively replaced into the stencil to cover up selected areas of the sketch, as will be described more particularly hereinafter. A view of a completed stencil is shown in Fig. 5 of the drawings.

Having completed the stencil, the operator prepares to mount the stencil on a screen of suitable size to space the perforations in the sketch paper for use in the apparatus of my invention as described hereinafter. A screen having rows of perforations of the order of inch between centers is normally satisfactory. For most purposes, the screen may be made square so that an equal number of perforations are found across and from front to back in the screen. Where the finished cloth is to have an equal number of warp and filler threads, all of the perforations will be used; if the ratio of warp to filler threads is two to one, then only every other row of perforations is used; if the ratio is three to one, only every third row of perforations will be used. If the ratio is not equally divisible into the number of rows of perforations, then it may be necessary to provide a new screen having a corresponding-number of rows of perforations from front to back. These variations in the use of the screens will be more readily understood by reference to the hereinafter description of the perforating method. As a specific example, there has been used successfully a screen having a perforated area of 19 inches between the eX- treme holes with the holes spaced 4; of an inch from center to center, thus providing 156 holes in each row of the screen. The particular dimensions of the screen are not critical and they depend entirely on the construction of the apparatus of my invention as will be apparent from the description hereinafter. As many screens as necessary are used to support the entire stencil,

4 the stencil being formed on one or more separate sheets corresponding to the size of the screens.

The next step is to place between the stencil and the screen a relatively light-weight paper such as sketch paper of the kind which when properly perforated may be used in the apparatus disclosed in my prior patent referred to above so as to cause the automatic perforation of Jacquard. The stencil paper and sketch paper may be secured to the screen in any suitable manner as, for example, by the use of adhesive tape.

The object now is to perforate the various areas of the sketch paper corresponding to the various areas of the stencil with a series of perforations having an arrangement corresponding to the particular weave which it is desired to form in those corresponding areas in the finished woven fabric. This is accomplished mechanically in accordance with the present invention by utilizing the stencil-sketch paper-screen combination prepared as described above with an apparatus of the present invention of the type shown in the drawings and to be described hereinafter. In general, this apparatus comprises a bank of needles corresponding to a row of holes in the screen, which needles are reciprocated to perforate the portions of the sketch paper exposed by the stencil and are controlled by a conventional Jacquard mechanism so that the needles provide a perforation pattern in the exposed areas corresponding to the Jacquard cards in the Jacquard head and, therefore, corresponding to a selected weave. When the machine is operated, the parts of the stencil corresponding to a given weave or color which are to be reproduced in the final textile fabric are first removed and Jacquard cards corresponding to that given color or weave are placed in the Jacquard head of the machine and then the machine automatically causes the uncovered areas to be perforated with a series of perforations corresponding to that selected or given color or weave. After this has been accomplished, the perforated areas are covered up and a second portion of the stencil corresponding to a second weave or color is then uncovered and the operation is repeated, this time utilizing a new set of Jacquard cards corresponding to the second weave or color selected. This may be repeated as often as necessary to cover all of the contrasting areas of the design. The operation of the method and apparatus will be more readily understood from the following description of the apparatus shown in the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, the machine is provided with a frame II] which may be made of any suitable material such as angle iron and includes a plurality of upwardly extending posts ll. Mounted on the frame 10 is a horizontal travelling table l5 Which is adapted to slide back and forth on the frame sections l2 and I3. The table I5 is provided at each side by a long steel bar [6 adjacent the upper edge thereof and a downwardly facing rack I7 adjacent the lower edge thereof. Between the bars [5 and rack I! are received rollers 3 which are journaled in the frame 10 at the frame sections l2 and I 3. As will be apparent, the bars i6 and racks H, in effect, form a track for the rollers [8. By reason of this mounting, as will be apparent, the table I 5 may be readily moved longitudinally through the machine.

The table I 5 is driven by a plurality of pinions l 9 which engage the racks l 7 and which, in turn, are driven by reason of their mounting on a common shaft 20 to which is attached a ratchet screens.

aezaeso wheel 2|. The ratchet wheel 2! is adaptedto be indexed in a clockwise direction as shown in. the drawings by a weight-biased pawl. 22 mounted on 'a lever arm 23 which, in turn, is. connected to a rod 24 having a" slot therein by. means of which the. rod 24is loosel supported by .a shaft 26. The rod. E l-has a cam follower 21 which engages. a cam 23 which, as will be apparent, is adapted to intermittently move the rod. 24.1ongitudinally thereby causing. the arm 23 and pawl 22 to index the ratchet wheel 2|. .By adjusting the connection between arm. 23 and rod 24 which canv be accomplished by. movingv the bolt 3.3v in the slot 34, it is possible to. so regulate. the machine that the ratchet wheel 2!, and hence. thepinion l9, may be indexed one or a. multiple of teeth on eachcycle.

. .Reverse movement of the ratchet wheel 2 I. normally is prevented by a second weight-biased pawlafi mounted on a handle 3|. .When it is desired torelease the table l5 so that. it may be freely drawn back and. forthonthe frame Ill, the handle 3i is moved in a counter-clockwisedirecs tion as. viewed in the drawings,.therebycausing the locking pawl 3.0. to become disengaged from the ratchet wheel 2!. A cord or other, connecting means 32. extending. between the handle 3! and the pawl 22 insures that the pawl 22. will also become disengaged, when the handle .31 is actuated as described.

The stencil-sketch paper-screen combination previously prepared as described above is mounted on the table l5. by means of a plurality of. pegs. which are receivedin, openingsllfi provided in. the screens. The stencil-sketch paperscreen combination is illustrated in'Eigs. 5,and 6 of the drawings as comprising a stencil prepared as previously described, a sketch paper- 41 and the perforated screen 42.

Mounted. above the table of the machine are ,two rows or banks of needles 45, each. row corprovided with a cam follower 56 which rests against a cam 51 also secured to the shaft 26. As will be. observed from the drawings, the sleeves 5| are reciprocated once for every turn of the shaft 26 and sequentially with respect to the indexing of the ratchet wheel 2! which, as previously described, also occurs each time the shaft 26 makes one revolution. The throw of the ratchet wheel 21 on each cycle is adjusted as previously described depending upon whether every row of available perforations is to be used, or every other row, etc., depending upon the ratio of warp to filler threads. Of course, it would be possible to obtain the same effect by using every row of perforations and then discarding every second or every second and third Jacquard card, etc. which is finally produced. It is an advantage of my invention, however, that this wasteful practice may be avoided by a single adjustment of the perforating machine described.

The shaft 26 is driven by a sprocket 60 and chain 6| which chain 6i also extends around a sprocket 62 secured to the output shaft 63 of the gear box :64 which is driven by any suitable means, such as the electric motor '65. The speed of the motor and the size of the gear box, etc. may be designed to obtain any practical speed of operation. In actual practice, it has been found convenient to operate the machine at the rate of 40 to cycles per minute.

The needles 45 are received at their lower and upper ends through guide bars 10 and H respectively. These guide bars are fixed to the frame of the machine and are stationary and merely serve to properly align the needles 45.

With the arrangement as described so far, all of the needles @5 would, of course, be reciprocated up and down upon each stroke of the needle bar 50. However, selective'action of the needles 45 is obtained in accordance with the invention by means of a Jacquard mechanism of conventional design. The Jacquard mechanism as such forms no part of the present invention and is, therefore, not shown in detail in the drawings. Each of the needles 45 is fastened, respectively, to the strings SI of the Jacquard mechanism 1 which, in turn, are selectively released by a series of needles (not shown) of the Jacquard head 80 readily be utilized with only one set of stencil,

sketch paper and perforated screen Which therefore, will require the use of only one set. of needles 45, or themachine could be enlarged topermit the side by side positioning of additional For simplicity and brevity of description, the machine willjbe more particularly de: scribed in connection with only. one side of the table I5" and one set of needles 45, the operation of the other half of the table ;l5 and second set of needles as being substantially identical.

I The. needles 45 have an upper p rtion 46 of enlarged cross section so that the needles maybe supported ona needlebar 5|]. The needle bar '50 is mounted on a pair of sleeves 5| which are con-. structed and arranged to slide verticall up and down on a pair of guide posts 52. The sleeves. 5| are adapted to be reciprocat'ed up and down on the posts 52 by a mechanical; arrangement comprising the linkage 53 and the lever arm 54 which is fixed to and pivotal with a shaft 55., The shaft 5.5 is reciprocally turned by an arm 58which the sprocket 52.

reciprocated in accordance with the pattern on Jacquard cards 82' mounted on the Jacquard card cylinder 83. The reciprocation of the needles of the Jacquard head 80 is accomplished by means of the linkage consisting of arms 84, 85 and 8B which is actuated by a crank 87 driven by the sprocket 88 which, in turn, is driven by a chain 39in timed relationship with the sprocket (ill by As a result of this timed relationship, the needles of the Jacquard head 80 are reciprccated simultaneously with the needles 45, of the machine of the present invention.

. As will be well understood by one skilled in the art, the perforations of the Jacqu'ard cards 82 placed on the cylinder 83 of the Jacquardhead 85 determines which of the needles of the head wilfbe permitted to drop when the head is actuated. While it is not deemed necessary here to go. into a detailed description of the operation of the Jacquard head, it might be helpful to ex plain that the Jacquard card cylinder 83 is reciprocated horizontally on the head 83 by a linkage consisting of arms l3 and 79 which also is 223 is reciprocated inwardly towardthe head so, the absence or presence of perforations determines which of the needles will be permitted to drop upon reciprocation of needle bar 50 by the mechanical linkage previously described. The Jacquard head is so constructed and arranged that the cylinder 83 is indexed one-fourth of' a revolution each time the needle bar 58 is reciprocated, thus advancing a new card for controlling the needles at each stroke. The apparatus for indexing the Jacquard card cy1inder83 is conventional and has been omitted from the drawings in the interest of simplicity of presentation, the same being old and Well known in the art.

Continuing in the operation of the method of my invention, the handle 3! is pulled to release the pawls 3i] and 22 whereupon the table l5 may be withdrawn manually to the extent desired, the stencil-sketch paper-screen combination secured thereon by the pegs 35 and the table adjusted so that the forward edge of the combination is adjacent the needles 15. The handle 3i is then released and the machine is ready to opcrate. Assuming that the fabric to be woven includes only two colors or weaves as, for example, a red figure on a black background, the portions of the stencil corresponding to the red figures are uncovered and Jacquard cards which, when utilized to control a loom will produce the desired color across the woven fabric, are placed on the Jacquard card cylinder 83. Thereupon, the apparatus is set in operation by energizing the electric motor 65 and the machine automatically will perforate the uncovered portions of the sketch paper with an arrangement of perforations corresponding to that of the Jacquard cards in the Jacquard head. This result is accomplished because, while all of the needles 55 are adapted to be reciprocated by the needle bar 58, only those needles which are freed by the Jacquard card will be permitted to descend. The points of the needles 45 as previously explained are in alignment entirely across the row of perforations in the screen 42. The needles whidh happen to strike the stencil-sketch paper-screen combination at the open parts of the stencil it will easily pierce the sketch paper ll and the needles will enter the perforations of the screen 42. However, where the needles 45 encounter the relatively tough covered areas of the stencil iii, the needles 45 will not penetrate and thus will not perforate the sketch paper M. This operation is fully illustrated in Fig. 6 of the drawings which shows the operation of a few of the needles, namely, a series of fourteen needles selected at random forming part of the machine. Beginning at the left, the first needle has been permitted to drop by the Jacquard head 85, when the needle bar 5%] is reciprocated, but this first needle has encountered a covered part of the stencil 40 and therefore has not penetrated the sketch paper M. The second and third needles have similarly been permitted to drop by the Jacquard head 86, but these needles have encountered an uncovered portion of the stencil 40 and, accordingly, have perforated the sketch paper 4|, the needles extending therethrough and into the screen 42. It might be noted here that this perforation of the sketch paper 4! produces a slightly irregular edge which is pressed inwardly along the periphery of the perforations of the screen 42 which is found to be desirable because it more firmly fixes the sketch paper 4| to the screen 42 thereby avoiding slippage and improving the operation when the sketch paper and screen are used in accordance with the teachings of my prior Patent 1,915,514. l'he fourth needle. has been retained in an upward position by the Jacquard head 8B and, therefore, there is'no perforation of the sketch paper a l even thoughthis needle is aligned with an uncovered portion of the stencil 40. The fifth, sixth and seventh needles are in the same position as the second and third needles while the eighth through the fourteenth needles correspond to the first needle previously described.

When the stencil, sketch paper, and screen have completely run through the machine, the machine is stopped, if preferred, by the use of an automatic switch ct which turns off the current to the electric motor at. The stencil, sketch paper and screen at this point will have an appearance hke that shown in Fig, 5, that is, with the uncovered sections A perforated with the distinctive pattern for those areas while the remaining portions or areas are covered and thus not perforated.

The handle Si is then grasped and the table I5 is withdrawn to original star'tmg position, whereupon the areas A are covered and the remaining areas or the stencil are uncovered. The stencil, sketch paper and screen are returned through the machine, this time with Jacquard cards corresponding to a plain weave, or Whatever weave is desired in the background in the Jacquard head 8U. Upon completion of this last operation, the sketch paper M is completely perforated in accordance with the design to be reproduced and the stencil paper 4! and screen 42 may then be placed on the apparatus shown in my Patent No. 1,913,514 and the Jacquard cards corresponding to the design will be automatically punched.

The operation of the method and apparatus of my invention has been described in detail with respect to the reproduction of a two-color design. AS will be apparent, however, the method and apparatus may be utilized to reproduce designs or several additional colors or weaves. In order to obtain these additional colors, it is, of course, necessary to interspace lines or perforations which are of a plain weave in a given design area, which lines are thus available for use in the other design areas to reproduce a different color. This is readily accomplished by including plain weave Jacquard cards along with Jacquard cards of the desired color or weave. As, for example, with a three-color design, every second Jacquard card utilized with the head 8:] would be a plain weave card, whereas with a four-color fabric, every second and third Jacquard card would be a plain weave card.

The formation of additional colors is, of course, accomplishedby the use of nller threads .of different colors. For example, if a ngure having the colors of red and yellow are to be reproduced on a black background, the filler threads utilized would be alternately red and yellow. It will be obvious that the portion of the design which is to appear in red color must be perforated to cause the exposure of the red thread, but on the pick in which the yellow thread is utilized the yellow must becovered up as by using a plain weave. This is accomplished in accordance with the present invention by utilizing Jacquard cards which are alternately for the purpose of throwing up the color and for concealing it. For example, referring again to the stencil-sketch 75 paper-screen combination shown in Fig. 5, let

us assume that the area A is to be colored yellow, area B is to be colored red and the background area C is to be black. When the areas A are perforated, the areas B and background C are covered and the Jacquard cards placed in the Jacquard head 80 comprise a series which are. alternately a card for producing the desired color (yellow): and a card having a plain weave. When this combination is run through the machine, the rows of perforations in the uncovered. areas A will be alternately arranged so as to throw up and conceal the color. As a result, only the yellow thread or color will be thrown up when the final cloth is'woven. After com pleting the perforation ofthe area B as indicated, the areas A in the stencil are covered up and the areas B are uncovered. Again, alternating cards are used in the Jacquard head except that the plain weave card is effective one row ahead of the row of perforations controlled by the plain weave card in the previous operation; As a result, the line of perforations in the area B which will result in throwing up the color will be in line with a row of perforations in the area A which would conceal this color. The background area C is again woven entirely with one .type of card such as the plain weave as previously de-' scribed. This. operation can be effective to add additional colors in which case the number of rows of perforations corresponding to a plain weave will be increased by the number of colors added. For example, with one additional color, only every third row in the areas A and B would be perforated to throw up the desired color whilethe remaining two rows would be formed with e of the Jacquard head 80 and the machine may then be operated through one full cycle with a plain sheet of unperforated sketch paper, thereby reproducing the design on the sketch paper with distinctive patterns for the various parts of the design. A quick inspection of this sketch paper will then indicate any errors in the J acquard cards and these may be removed and corrected or replaced. This avoids the need for running the Jacquard cards through a loom in order todetermine whether or not they are accurate and also permits the punching of the Jacquard cards at a central location or removed from the weaving establishments.

As will be apparent, the operation of my'inven- .tion is automatic for the most part and the production of Jacquard cards from the original de- It is also-to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of' language, mightbe said to fall therebetween.

I'claim as my invention: 1 1. An apparatus for perforating a paper sheet adapted to be used for controlling the punching of Jacquard cards comprising a movable table adapted to support'a-screen having a series of rows of holes therein; a paper sheet overlying the? screen, andastencil'overlying the paper sheet, a

series ofneedles corresponding to and adapted to be aligned with at least one row of holes of saidscreen, means for indexing the table to suecessively align the rows of holes of saidscreen with the needles,-n1eans for reciprocating selected needles of said series after each indexing of the table constructed and arranged to cause the selected" needles to perforate thepaper sheets at the open portions of the stencil and to permit the selected needles to' be stopped from perforating the sheet by the closed portions of the stencil, and a Jacquard mechanism for selecting the needles to be reciprocated in accordance with the holes in a series of Jacquard cards.

2. An apparatus for perforating a paper sheet adapted to be used for controlling the punching of Jacquard cards comprising a horizontal table mov-* able in a horizontal direction, said table being adap'ted to support a screen'having a series of rows of holes" therein, a paper .sheet overlying the screen, and a stencil overlying the paper sheet, a bank of needles supported 'verticall in alignment with the rows of holes in said screen as said table is moved horizontally thereunder, means for indexing the table" to successively align the rows of holes in said screen with said needles, means for permitting the dropping of said needles after each indexing of the table, said needles being adapted to pierce'th'e paper sheet at the open portions of the stencil but being prevented from piercing the paper sheet at the-covering portions of the stencil, and a Jacquard mechanism for preventing the dropping of individual needles in accordance with the perforations in Jacquard cards relating to a selected weave. 1

sign may be accomplished in a minimum of time and with a minimum of necessary skill;

Also, as previously indicated, the machine can be made of an desired size to accommodate any number of screens 32 depending upon the size of the repeat or the number of threads in the fabric to be woven.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments f this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying draw-, ings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not ina limitingsense.

3. An apparatus for perforating a paper sheet adapted to be used for controlling the punching of Jacquard cards comprising a horizontall movable table adapted to support a screen having, a series of rows of holes therein, a paper sheet overlying the screen, and a stencil overlying the paper sheet, a bank of vertically guided needles corresponding to and in alignment with the rows of holes in said screen as said table is moved hori- 'zontally thereunder, means forindexing the table to successively align the rows of holes in'said screen with said needles, a reciprocable needle bar for supporting said needles, means for reciprocating said bar to permit said needles to enter said screen after each indexing of the table, said needles being adapted to pierce the paper sheet at v the open parts of the stencil but being prevented 4. I a method of erforating a paper sheet for controlling t e punching of Jacouard cards, the steps compr sing forming an enlarged stencil of the design to be reduced, placing said stencil with the open parts thereof corresponding to a single weave or color on a screen having a plura it of rows of holes and with a, paper sheet therebetween, reciprocating a series of needles corresponding to one of sa d rows of holes successively through the o en parts of the stencil to perforate the paper sheet, and controlling the reciprocation of said needles with Jacquard cards corresponding to said single weave or color.

5. In a method of perforating a paper sheet for controlling the punching of Jacquard cards, the steps com ris ng forming an enlarged st n il of the de ign to be r produced, placing said stencil with the o en parts thereof corresponding to a single weave or color on a screen having a plurality of rows of holes and with a pa er sheet there-' between, releasing a series of needles corresponding to one of said row of holes to perforate the pa er at the o en portions of the stencil, and rendering said release of certain of said needles ineffectual accordance with the holes i a Jacquard card corresponding to said single weave or color.

6. In a method of perforating a paper sheet to be used for control ing the punching of Jacquard cards, the steps comprising forming an enlar ement of a design to be reproduced on relatively heavy stencil paper, cutting the stencil along the outline of the various colors or weaves to be reproduced, placing said stencil on a screen having a plurality of rows of holes with a paper sheet therebetween, removing from the stencil all portions corresponding to a single color or weave, reciprocating a series of needles corresponding to one of said rows of holes successively throughout the screen so as to perforate all exposed areas of the pa er sheet, rendering the reciprocation of said needles ineffectual to cause certain of the needles to perforate said exposed areas in accordance with the punches in Jacquard cards corresponding to said single color or weave, and then repeating the perforating steps with said 12 portions of the stencil replaced and additional portions of the stencil corresponding to a second color or weave removed, this time utilizing Jacquard cards corresponding to the second weave or color.

'7. In a method of perforating a paper sheet to be used for controlling the punching of Jacquard cards, the steps comprising forming an enlarged sketch of a, design to be reproduced on relatively heavy stencil paper, cutting the stencil along the outline of the various colors to be reproduced, placing said stencil on a screen having a plurality of rows of holes'and with a paper sheet therebetween, removing from the stencil all portions corresponding to a single color, successively perforating said rows of holes at the exposed portions of the stencil with a series of needles controlled by a Jacquard mechanism, utilizing a series of Jacquard cards in said mechanism comprising in series a'first card corresponding to the desired color and one or more additional cards corresponding to a plain weave, the number of said additionalcards being dependent on the additional number of colorsto be reproduced in the design, replacing saidremoved portions of the stenoil and removing additional portions corresponding to a second color repeating the perforating of the paper sheets while utilizing a series of Jacquard cards having a first card corresponding to the second color, and continuing said operations until all of the portions of the paper sheet have been perforated.

RICHARD RUDDELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

